The first round of Egypt’s much delayed parliamentary elections have ended. Local interest has been circumscribed, but the elections and indeed the parliament itself are still set to form a useful fig leaf for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime while keeping the business community on side.

Last month, the leader of one of Egypt’s best known opposition movements disappeared.

Amr Ali, 32, was taken from his home in Shebeen el-Kom in the Menoufia governorate north of Cairo at around 5pm on 22 September.Amr is the head of the April 6 Youth Movement, a group that was the central mobilising force behind Egypt’s 2011 uprisings, and that is often credited with having played a critical role in forcing the country’s former president Hosni Mubarak out of office.